Residents of a prestigious residential complex on Ben Gamliel Street in Jaffa, when purchasing apartments, paid extra for a park on the site near the building, but soon discovered that the park’s territory had been illegally occupied by a nearby mosque.
It took Tel Aviv City Hall six years to open a case for illegal land occupation, but eventually the demolition order for the illegal structure was largely overturned as part of a compromise between the City Hall and the mosque administration.
After this, the residents filed a lawsuit against the Tel Aviv City Hall demanding compensation for the reduction in the value of their apartments. Lawyers for the mayor’s office argued that the municipality should not be the addressee of the lawsuit, but the court did not agree with them.
Tel Aviv Magistrates Court Judge Ronit Pinchuk-Alt ruled that the mayor’s office was responsible for allowing illegal construction and then taking too long to take any measures to eliminate it, and ordered residents to pay 480 thousand shekels in compensation for the reduction in the value of the apartment and 60 thousand shekels of legal costs.